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Ember didn’t
waste time transporting them back. Eli was waiting for them in the
darkness at the other side. He nodded his head giving them the all
clear as they quickly made their way to their hotel. That whole
operation had taken ten minutes. Those ten minutes had been the
most important ones of his life.

As they
walked, Jack’s mind was running over the next stage of the plan.
They’d managed to pull off the most dangerous part. If that had
gone wrong, no one knew other than Tabitha that they’d been here.
Alastair could have dealt with them silently and made up a
reasonable excuse for their demise. He wouldn’t put it past the man
to lie to his coven. He was doing it now. Tavish had to know his
leader was lying. He seemed like the only one in the know about
this whole thing.

It didn’t
matter now. They’d done it. They just had to see it through to the
end. The plan had to work because they had nothing else to work
with. Once he went through with the next stage of the plan, he
hoped Cora believed them, because all would definitely be lost if
she didn’t.

44

THE FINAL
PHASE

“
Right, are
you ready?” Eli asked him.

Jack was
jumping around on his feet like a nervous, inexperienced boxer
waiting to have a punch up with a world champion. “Yeah, I’m
ready.”

“
Tabitha has
called letting me know that he’s there with Cora. Where else would
he be?” Eli scoffed angrily. “Ciaran is also there for support,
just in case we need back up. I like him...”

“
Yeah, so do
I,” Jack agreed.

“
Anyway, we
will follow you shortly. You need to enter first. If he decides to
do any funny business, then remember, we outnumber him. Alastair
won’t know until it’s too late.”

“
It’s not
Quinn that makes me nervous. I can handle him fine. It’s Cora
reaction. I don’t know how she is going to react to this whole
thing.”

“
You can’t
think of that yet. Just think about getting him out in the open. We
will deal with the fall out when it happens.”

“
Yeah, okay,
see you there.”

Walking past
Bruton’s field, Jack saw that the horses were happily roaming, the
sun kissing their naked backs as they munched on the short blades
of grass. The birds were out in full force scavenging for food
whilst twittering to each other. Despite the appearance of the
bright sun in the clear blue sky, the nip in the air still required
a coat.

Jack
appreciated the quiet before the storm, because a storm was
definitely brewing. If he had anything to do with it, it would
strike in less than five minutes. He took deep, calming breaths as
he tried to figure out how to approach this stage. He needed to be
assertive to make Cora listen, but not too much that she shouted at
him.

He turned the
corner at the colourful cluster of houses and cast a quick glance
over the three watchful witches on the pavement outside the shop.
Everything looked calm. It was about to change.

*

Cora wiped
down the top shelf of the bigger mahogany bookcase and started
placing the jars of multi-coloured sand back on it. She positioned
them so the natural light from the window and the shop lights
twinkled through them creating a sea of pastel. She knew that the
dust would accumulate in less than a week, and she knew that she
would have to do this again. She didn’t mind, it helped to keep her
mind busy.

Ciaran was
stood behind her sweeping the floor. He’d been rather quiet since
the opening of the shop. He’d also been sweeping that same bit of
floor for the past ten minutes. She would remember to ask if he was
okay on their lunch break. Ciaran had been acting rather strange
during the week. It was almost like he had something on his
mind.

Quinn placed
his arms around her waist pulling her close to his body.

“
Yer fancy
doing somethin’ special tonight?” Quinn pushed her hair aside, his
lips brushing against her ear as he spoke. “Ayden isnae home...” he
whispered.

“
Tabitha will
be,” she whispered back, and deep down inside she was thankful. She
didn’t want to feel rushed into doing something.

She wasn’t
sure how she felt about being alone,
alone,
with Quinn. She liked him, a
lot. She knew what he was referring to. He’d been rather upfront
about that for a while. She’d been holding back, pushing him away.
She’d always envisioned her first time being with Jack. She
couldn’t shake that thought.

“
We could gae
off early? You dannae huv tae work until closing,” he
grinned.

Loud rock
music suddenly blasted from his pocket, interrupting whatever may
have happened between them. She pushed away from his warm embrace
and continued working as Quinn moved to the small table looking at
his phone with a puzzled expression on his face. She watched him
hit the red button. No sooner had he put his phone in his pocket,
it started ringing again.

“
You better
answer that.”

He shrugged
ignoring eye contact with her. “It’s ma bruver. He can
wait.”

“
If he’s
ringing again, it’s obviously something urgent. Take
it.”

“
Nae, it’s
fine.”

The phone
stopped ringing just as Tabitha entered the shop from the flat
upstairs. Tabitha quickly glanced at her, those leaf green eyes
cold and unsmiling as Tabitha made her way to the back room and
closed the door. Cora withheld a sigh.

Attempting to
forget about all of her troubles, Cora moved to the till just as
Quinn’s phone chirped again.

“
Listen,
answer your phone. Otherwise, I will answer it instead,” she said
grinning and walked towards him.

“
A will take
it. A won’t be a second.”

“
Please use
the small room, Quinn. I do not want the customers to be distracted
with witch business,” Tabitha suggested as she exited.

Quinn nodded
and jogged to the small room pulling his phone out of his
pocket.

As the door
shut to the small room, the bell jingled above the shop door. Cora
turned and watched Jack saunter into the shop.

*

Jack studied
Cora as he walked up the steps. That single hit to his chest as
soon as he saw her was something he’d never get used to. The
longing, the need to touch her, to kiss her, was overwhelming. Her
hair was hanging loose around her shoulders, her soft, rose tinted
lips were open with surprise.

“
Jac-”

“
No, Cora,
listen. You just need to listen, please.”

Tabitha moved
to the side of Cora and held her hand. That action alone silenced
Cora. Jack knew their relationship had been somewhat strained since
the arrival of Quinn. He could see the way Cora looked at Tabitha
and then glanced down at their joined hands. He was just thankful
Cora was remaining quiet.

He held the
phone to his ear. “Quinn, aye, we be needin’ tae talk.”

“
Jack-”

Tabitha waved
her arms in the air, dusting them with something. Cora moved her
mouth but he couldn’t hear her words. Jack received a nod from
Tabitha who gripped onto Cora’s hand so tightly Cora’s face held
pain. He pushed the loud speaker on the phone so she could hear
everything.

“
Alastair,
whit has happened?”

“
Did yer say
that yer had Cora in yer hand? That yer could control
her?”

“
Aye. It is
all under control.”

With those
words, Cora’s mouth stopped moving. She was listening, finally. Her
eyebrows rose in shock, as Tabitha’s hand let go of
hers.

Jack walked
closer to the door as Ciaran appeared at his side, ready to back
him up if this may result in a dirty fight.

“
The situation
wi’ Cora,” Jack spoke in his best Scottish accent. “A’ve heard it
isnae goin’ well. Tavish has been tae see, and he can see that Jack
is changin’ Cora’s mind.”Jack was rather impressed with himself.
His Alastair impression wasn’t half bad.

“
A don’t know
whit yer goin on aboot. Cora worships the ground A walk on. She has
succumbed tae ma charm.”

Jack looked at
the thunderous expression that crossed Cora’s face. Quinn had
literally shot himself in the foot.

They were now
upon the closed door. Ciaran was grinning like a child in a very
big sweet shop. Jack couldn’t grin yet. He had too much balancing
on this phone call going to plan. “Hold yer line, Quinn.” He held
the phone to his chest as Eli and Ayden walked into the
shop.

Cora’s face
was now red with anger. Jack hoped she was piecing things together.
He could feel the wind push up against him. She wasn’t glaring at
him so that helped matters. Jack continued with the plan hoping
this finally pulled the cat out of the bag. “Quinn?”

“
Aye?”

“
We hav tae
make sure the plan works. If yer get Cora, yer will be in charge of
all covens and Cora will be nothing,” Jack shouted but the tension
on his voice as he did the accent made it crack. Christ. He hadn’t
just ruined their chance had he?

“
It will gae
tae plan. We will crush Cora an’ her ridiculous coven,” Quinn
whispered angrily.

Jack grinned
as Cora stepped towards the door. This was it.

“
Oh, will you
now!” Cora shouted just as she threw the door open to find Quinn
standing in the middle of the room holding the phone to his ear
with a look of shock on his face.

45

DON’T YOU JUST
LOVE IT

WHEN A PLAN
COMES TOGETHER?

For many
important seconds, Quinn stood in the room looking like a rabbit
caught in headlights. His eyes flitted between Tabitha, Eli and
himself before resting on Cora and repeating. To help him figure
this out, Jack held the phone up and wiggled it in the air with a
smile on his face. Quinn shot him a disgusted look.

“
Cora, A can
explain,” Quinn said, fumbling with his phone as he tried to put it
in his pocket.

Quinn didn’t
have much chance to do anything as a short, sharp blast of cold
wind surged from within Cora knocking Quinn against the wall. Jack
continued to smile, enjoying the fact that it wasn’t him on the end
of that whiplash. Cora stalked towards Quinn like a lion hunting
its prey.

The entire
room was suddenly engulfed with the power of her element. Jack took
a deep breath as he felt it push at him and then swirl around him
making sure he wasn’t pushed back. Tabitha watched with a keen eye
as Cora stepped closer to Quinn.

“
You think I’m
ridiculous,” she snarled and lifted up her hand and threw it down
at Quinn.

Quinn
whimpered in response.

Holy
shit!
Jack cursed.

Jack could see
that Quinn’s top had ripped, revealing a sliver of red against his
chest. Cora had just used the wind to whip Quinn. Jack felt pride
swell in his chest. This woman fascinated him. She was beautiful,
she was strong and fair when it came down to things, most of the
time, and she was sexy as hell when she was mad.

He fell in
love with her all over again.

“
No, Cora, it
wasn’t like that.”

Quinn looked
at him, practically spitting with rage. “It wa’ Jack, he’s made
this whole thin’ up.”

“
I suggest you
leave,” Cora whispered, “before I do some serious damage to
you.”

Quinn
scrambled around the room but was blocked by the four men, himself
included. For once, Tabitha stood off to the side clearly enjoying
the show. Usually Tabitha would be the first to stop a situation
from getting out of hand. This time, after everything that had
happened, Tabitha knew they needed to do this.

“
I could smash
your face in for what you’ve done to me, to Cora and our coven, but
I won’t,” Jack growled. “We are stronger than you. As you can see,
we found out your little secret. We work together through thick and
thin. No one can break us. Now I suggest that you leave here and
never come back.”

Quinn growled.
“Why shud A?”

Jack fisted
his hands and stepped into Quinn’s space.

“
I think you
should listen to Jack,” Eli suggested.

“
A’m not
scared of yer!” Quinn hissed.

Jack didn’t
hold back. His fist connected to the side of Quinn’s face. Quinn
stumbled back and then shook his head and charged at Jack. Jack
stood his ground, held back his fist and pushed it into Quinn’s
stomach.

Quinn wheezed
and fell to the floor.

“
Jesus, and
you call yourself a witch. First and foremost, you need to learn to
fight with your fists!” Jack leered. “Get up!”

Quinn stumbled
to his feet, holding his stomach. Jack moved to the side to let
Quinn past, in the blink of an eye Quinn was instantly greeted with
a fist to the side of his face. The sickening crunch followed by
the spray of blood on Jack’s coat was worth it.